PlayStation.Blog

Hustle Kings – The King of Pool Games

Hi, I’m Mark Williams, Technology Director at VooFoo Studios, developers of the soon to be released Hustle Kings for PSN and PS3. We really wanted to make sure Hustle Kings was something special right from the start, and the response from the unveiling at E3 has exceeded all of our initial expectations.

Everyone who has seen and played Hustle Kings so far has been incredibly impressed, and one of the things that many people have commented on is how brilliantly the AI plays. We have such a comprehensive selection of online and multiplayer game modes in Hustle Kings, I was keen to ensure that our single player career campaign was just as challenging and enjoyable. I initially sat down and played a lot of other pool and snooker games, and it really struck me as to how tiresome and predictable the AI generally was. I found myself wanting to skip past the shots played by my computer controlled opponent as they just weren’t fun to watch. Hustle Kings needed something different, I thought, we needed to make our AI both challenging and entertaining.

Pool, and snooker probably even more so, are not games simply about potting balls. When lining up to pot a ball, you ideally want to leave the cue ball in a position that makes your next shot easier. Conversely, if you’re not able to pot a ball, you want to make the next shot difficult for your opponent, and in games such as Killer, this is even more important because the next shot will always be taken by your opponent. When a computer controlled opponent is lining up its shot in Hustle Kings, it can read where all the possible pots are within an instant, but instead of always opting for the easiest and most obvious shot, it will consider the alternatives, and how different shots will affect the table.

In Hustle Kings, bonus credits are also awarded for skillful shots that involve swerves or jumps, and pots that include plants or banks, so the AI is always trying to look for the best shot possible, to leave the cue ball in the best possible position, and earn as many bonus credits as possible along the way. But this is only the beginning. At the top end of our difficulty scale we are able to entice it to go much further, to attempt crazy and seemingly impossible shots. Try leaving the insane-level AI tight up against a cushion, awkwardly snookered on its only remaining ball, with no possible path of escape. Somehow, more often than not, it will manage an escape. It’s quite a sight to see the AI smash the cue-ball into the jaw of a pocket so hard that it bounces up along the rail, rolls past the obstructing balls, spins back down onto the table, pots the remaining ball and leaves itself perfectly positioned on the black – and you know that it was all planned. Some AI opponents will even show off and purposely leave themselves in these tricky situations, only to make the next shot appear just as trivial as the one before it.

There’s no cheating here – the AI is in no way defying the laws of physics and every single shot the AI pulls off is one that any human player could also pull off. When watching the AI play Hustle Kings, you get to see how much spin and power is being applied – trying the same shot yourself will yield exactly the same result.

There is one problem with this AI though: as it stands, it’s pretty unbeatable. It might be entertaining to watch, but if you can’t beat it, then where’s the fun in that? Thankfully we have a variety of AI characters in Hustle Kings, at various skill levels, all set to play in different ways. Some make occasional mistakes, others are fiendishly difficult, but whether you’re a beginner or an expert pool player, you’ll find a suitable opponent for an enjoyable game. Once you’ve conquered the easy, difficult and expert level career modes, you get to play against the incredibly challenging insane-level AI. Even the most hardcore pool players will have a tough time completing the insane career mode!

Somewhat interesting, although I’ve witnessed so many incredible AI shots in various other pool games that extra emphasis put on AI performance doesn’t sound much fun.

Granted, choosing a difficulty level in which the AI makes “occasional mistakes” is always an option but winning like that is hardly rewarding.

Any chance a possible sequel could track the performance of the player in realtime, dynamically and transparently adjusting the difficulty so that the game would punish you for playing half-heartedly, reward you for being genuinely good, and being somewhere in-between for the rest of us?

As it stands, sounds like you can either be truly hardcore or chicken out by dumbing down the AI but as for an enjoyable experience, it’s all manual?

Realistic AI is certainly one of the bigger challenges in video game programming from my limited experience with it. Best of luck, I’ll be sure to watch out for this one.

For what it’s worth, the best pool game I’ve ever played was, believe it or not, the “Monkey Billiards” minigame in Super Monkey Ball from Sega. If you can match or beat THAT experience, then you’ve got yourself a major winner on your hands. Pro Tip: Monkeys, PLEASE! :-p

ALL GAMES FROM JAN 1, 2009 ONWARD HAVE TROPHIES. ALL GAMES FROM JAN 1, 2009 ONWARD HAVE TROPHIES. ALL GAMES FROM JAN 1, 2009 ONWARD HAVE TROPHIES. ALL GAMES FROM JAN 1, 2009 ONWARD HAVE TROPHIES. ALL GAMES FROM JAN 1, 2009 ONWARD HAVE TROPHIES. ALL GAMES FROM JAN 1, 2009 ONWARD HAVE TROPHIES. ALL GAMES FROM JAN 1, 2009 ONWARD HAVE TROPHIES. ALL GAMES FROM JAN 1, 2009 ONWARD HAVE TROPHIES.

I can appreciate the desire to approach the greatest degree of realism possible and if you were to show it in a TV commerical people would rave over it, definitely adding a strong selling point, but, at some point, I’d like to know that I’m getting something more than reality offers. Flaming balls that explode the others or something, the ability to whack your opponent with your stick (you CAN do that in real life, but retaliation is painful :P ), something that shakes up the norm.

Sorry to criticize, but at least it’s constructive criticism, not to mention honest. You can only imagine how many are going to just say “looks great” and then pass it by without any explanation as to why.

#31 Keebzerz
CORRECTION!
All games submitted to Sony for approval after Jan. 01, 2009 must have trophies to be approved.
Submitted for approval is different than released.
Games take years to make and there is a slim possibility that a game that had been approved prior to Jan 01, 2009 and to be released later this year could still be lacking trophies.

Please don’t make such broad statements.
Granted almost all games coming out in 2009 will have trophies because as a Dev they should know better.

However if people didn’t ask no one would ever know the answer, just because you know the answer or THINK you do is no excuse to be a D*CK about it.

Just putting this out their…but this game would be more appealing if you supported sony’s motion controller when it comes out. Not that you should hold your game till then but I can’t help but think this game would be perfect for it. Gonna pray u patch it later on cuz I still want this now. Only other game that would be perfect for motion controls would be Resistance 3.

This looks to be the video pool game i have been looking for for years. Awesome images and the video I saw at E3 grabbed me from the first second.

It wasn’t mentioned, but is there a possibility for this game to have a space in SCEA’s Home and supoort game launching? That certainly would be cool and the space will definitely be a hot spot in Home.